Bandai Plamodel

This article is about Japanese merchandising. For some pointers about related subjects like bootlegs, Japanese version vs the world, or the Toei sticker, you can consult the Merchandise FAQ page.

Illustrations on this page are stock photos of finished and polished model kits. You may require some cutting, assembling and painting skills to let them look like completed products.

Bandai Hobby Division edited several plastic model kits, known in Japan as "plamodels" (プラモデル,puramoderu?), dedicated to the famous ships that the Straw Hat crew has ridden during their adventures: the Going Merry and the Thousand Sunny.

They were never made part of an identifiable brand line apart from the obvious One Piece advertising. Upon completion, the non-scale model kits measure around 25-28 cm long and come with unpainted figures of the crew and a display stand.

As any regular model kits, they need a complete hobby toolset to get assembled and be painted:

Building tools:

Nippers, pliers or side cutters to cut parts from plastic runners.

Utility knives to trim the excess plastic, also called nubs or sprues.

Sandpaper or files to thin sprues further down in delicate areas.

Tweezers to help applying stickers and decals on parts.

Modeling putty (optional) to fill gaps, seams and unwanted crevices. It should be sanded down and painted over later, as it dries to a grey color.

Topcoat (optional) to apply a protective layer to the model and paint. As it adds thickness to parts, it should be applied carefully on joints.

Actually, the model kits are produced in a way that the assembled kits do not really need any painting to be displayed. However, painting still provides a huge visual enhancement compared to the initial bare colors.